GfK Romania: Romanian social media users like to be friends with brands

Cristina Blanaru Creativity, Studies

According to a study made by GfK Romania for the Romanian marcom news site IQads, Romanian social media users appreciate companies online communication both through online advertising and social media. The study shows that 61% of the respondents prefer brand sites, while 41% like company websites.

Besides that, 41% from the Romanian internet users think direct e-mailing is a good way a brand should communicate to its consumers. In spite of that, e-mail communication must be used carefully, as too many commercial messages risk to be considered spam.

A big dislike comes from Romanian consumers for ad formats that are coming back persistently, like pop-ups or interstitial ads – the ones that open on a page before the content users are looking for.

In what concerns social media, they are known mainly among urban internet consumers, 87% of the respondents have an account on at least one social network. From them, 89% have an account on Facebook.

On the other hand, the study showed that brands’ presence in social media is welcomed by consumers, brands being recommended by 40% of them, through content sharing. Moreover, the communication becomes bi-directional, with consumers having a say to the companies more than it happened in the past. That is why the companies must change their communication, as they need to be more opened, friendlier, socialize with their consumers and listen to them.
A few trends regarding the Romanian Facebook users are acting towards brands on the social platform:

  • Romanian internet users like to become “friends” with brands present on Facebook – 63%
  • Women and students are the most likely categories of people to like brands on Facebook
  • 40% of Romanian Facebook users are becoming brands’ promoters, forwarding the materials the brands are publishing on their pages

Almost a third of the users published commercials on their Facebook profile on their own accord and 35% discussed with other people about different brands.

People are likely to participate to events they got invited through Facebook, with the highest attendance coming from 18-24 years olds.

The online study was applied on a panel of 500 respondents, representative for the Romanian population aged 15-55 y.o. The error margin is +/- 4%.